Читать книгу The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England during Tudor and Stuart Times - K. Rebillon Lambley - Страница 37

Tres bonne doctrine	Rygt good lernyng
Pour aprendre	For to lerne
Briefment fransoys et engloys.	Shortly frenssh & englyssh.
Au nom du pere	In the name of the fadre
Et du filz	And of the soone
Et du sainte esperite	And of the holy ghost
Veul comnencier	I wyll begynne
Et ordonner ung livre,	And ordeyne this book,
Par le quel on pourra	By the which men shall mowe
Raysonnablement entendre	Resonably understande
Françoys et Anglois,	Frenssh and Englissh,
Du tant comme cest escript	Of as moche as this writing
Pourra contenir et estendre,	Shall conteyne & stratche,
Car il ne peut tout comprendre.	For he may not all comprise.
Mais ce qu'on n'y trouvera	But that which cannot be founden
Declairé en cestui	Declared in this
Pourra on trouver ailleurs	Shall be founde somwhere els
En aultres livres.	In other bookes.
Mais sachies pour voir	But knowe for truthe
Que es lignes de cest aucteur	That in the lynes of this auctour
Sount plus de parolles et de raysons	Ben moo wordes & reasons
Comprinses, et de responses	Comprised, & of answers
Que en moult d'aultres livres.	Than in many other bookes.
Qui ceste livre vouldra aprendre	Who this booke shall wylle lerne
Bien pourra entreprendre	May well enterprise
Merchandises d'un pays a l'autre,	Marchandise fro one land to anoothir,
Et cognoistre maintes denrées	And to know many wares
Que lui seroient bon achetés	Which to him shall be good to be bought
Ou vendues pour riche devenir.	Or sold for rich to become.
Aprendes ce livre diligement,	Lerne this book diligently,
Grande prouffyt y gyst vrayement.	Grete prouffyt lieth therein truly.

The 'doctrine' itself opens with a list of salutations with the appropriate answers. A house and all its contents come next, then its inhabitants, which introduces the subject of degrees of kinship:

Or entendes petys et grands,

Je vous dirai maintenant

Dune autre matere

La quele ie commence.

Se vous estes mariés

Et vous avez femme

Et vous ayez marye,

Se vous maintiens paisiblement

Que vos voisins ne disent

De vous fors que bien:

Ce seroit vergoigne.

Se vous aves pere et mere,

Si les honnourés tousiours;

Faictes leur honneur; …

Si vous aves enfans,

Si les instrues

De bonnes meurs;

Le temps qu'ilz soient josnes

Les envoyes a l'escole

Aprendre lire et escripre. …

At the end of the category come the servants and their occupations, which affords an opportunity of bringing in the different shops to which they are sent and of specifying the meat and drink they purchase there. We then pass to buying, selling, and bargaining in general, and to merchandise of all kinds, with a list of coins, popular fairs, and fête-days.

After an enumeration of the great persons of the earth comes the main chapter of the work, giving a fairly complete list of crafts and trades. This takes the form of an alphabetical list of Christian names, each of which is made to represent one of the trades, beginning with Adam the ostler: "For this that many words shall fall or may fall which be not plainly heretofore written, so shall I write you from henceforth divers matters of all things, first of one thing, then of another, in which chapter I will conclude the names of men and women after the order of a, b, c." The baker may be selected as a fair example:

Ferin le boulengier	Fierin the baker
Vend blanc pain et brun.	Selleth whit brede and brown.
Il a sour son grenier gisant	He hath upon his garner lieng
Cent quartiers de bled.	One hundred quarters of corn.
Il achete a temps et a heure,	He byeth in tyme and at hour,
Si qu'il n'a point	So that he hath not
Du chier marchiet.	Of the dere chepe (high buying prices).

At last the author, "all weary of so many names to name, of so many crafts, so many offices, so many services," finds relief in certain considerations of a religious order: "God hath made us unto the likeness of himself, he will reward those who do well and punish those who do not repent of their sins, and attend the holy services: If ye owe any pilgrimages, so pay them hastily; when you be moved for to go your journey, and ye know not the waye, so axe it thus." The usual directions for inquiring the way follow with the description of the arrival at an inn, and the customary gossip. The reckoning and departure on the following morning afford an opportunity of including a further list of Flemish and English coins together with the numerals; and Caxton concludes his work by commending it to the reader with a prayer that those who study it may persevere sufficiently to profit by it:

Cy fine ceste doctrine,	Here endeth this doctrine,
A Westmestre les Loundres	At Westmestre by London
En formes impressée,	In fourmes enprinted,
En le quelle ung chaucun	In the whiche one everish
Pourra briefment aprendre	May shortly lerne
François et Engloys.	French and English.
La grace de sainct esperit	The grace of the holy ghosst
Veul enluminer les cures	Wylle enlyghte the hertes
De ceulx qui le aprendront,	Of them that shall lerne it,
Et nous doinst perseverance	And us gyve perseverans
En bonnes operacions,	In good werkes,
Et apres cest vie transitorie	And after lyf transitorie
La pardurable ioye et glorie!	The everlasting ioye and glorie!

The short introduction and epilogue were most probably the composition of Caxton himself. The rest of the book is drawn from a set of dialogues in French and Flemish, first written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, called Le Livre des Mestiers in reference to its main chapter.[116] This would possibly be known to merchants trading with Bruges and other centres of the Low Countries; and when we notice the numerous points of resemblance between it and the English manuals of conversation, the first of which did not appear before the end of the same century, it seems very probable that the Flemish original had some influence on the works produced in England. Caxton was a silk mercer of London, and his business took him to the towns of the Low Countries, especially Bruges, where the English merchants had a large commercial connexion. There, no doubt, he became acquainted with the Livre des Mestiers, and probably improved his knowledge of French by its help, for he studied and read the language a good deal during his long sojourn abroad. There also he probably added an English column to his copy of the French-Flemish phrase-book, as a sort of exercise rather than with any serious intention of publication; and when he had set up his press at Westminster, remembering the need he had felt for French, in his own commercial experience, and the little book which had assisted him, he would decide to print it. Caxton's copy of the Livre des Mestiers belonged, no doubt, to a later date than the one extant to-day,[117] probably to the beginning of the fifteenth century. It must have been fuller, and have had different names attached to the characters, so that, as the names are still arranged in alphabetical order, it is difficult, at a glance, to distinguish the identity of the two texts.

Caxton's rendering of the French is often inaccurate, owing perhaps to the influence of the Flemish version from which he seems to have made his translation.[117] Moreover, at the early date at which Caxton, probably, added the English column to the Livre des Mestiers, his knowledge of French had not yet reached that state of thoroughness which was to enable him to translate such a remarkable number of French works into English. He himself tells us in the prologue to the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy of Raoul le Fèvre (Bruges, 1475)—the first of his translations from the French, and, indeed, the first book to be printed in English—that his knowledge of French was not by any means perfect. With the exception of the introductory and closing sentences, Caxton made few additions to his original. He did indeed supply the names of English towns, coins, bishoprics, and so on; but, on the whole, the setting of the work is foreign; Bruges, not London, is the centre of the action, and no doubt the place where the original was composed.

Not long after the publication of Caxton's doctrine another work of like character and purpose appeared. It claims to be "a good book to learn to speak French for those who wish to do merchandise in France, and elsewhere in other lands where the folk speak French." The atmosphere is entirely English, and consequently its contents bear a closer resemblance to its English predecessors. In the arrangement of the dialogue it is identical with the Cambridge conversation book, except that the English lines come before the French, and not the French before the English.[118] The four subjects round which the dialogue turns, namely, salutations, buying and selling, inquiring the way, and conversation at the inn, were all favourites in the early "Manières de Langage." For the rest it follows in the steps of its English predecessors in confining itself to dialogue pure and simple, while Caxton's 'doctrine' adopted the narrative form. In one point, however, the work differs from the latest development of the old "Manière de Langage," as preserved in the Cambridge Dialogues in French and English; the dialogues are followed by a vocabulary, then a reprint of one of the old books on courtesy and demeanour for children, with a French version added, and finally commercial letters in French and English. The work is thus made much more comprehensive than any of its type which had as yet appeared, and includes samples, so to speak, of all the practical treatises for teaching French which had appeared in the Middle Ages.

It was printed separately by the two chief printers of the time, both foreigners: Richard Pynson, a native of Normandy and student of Paris, who came to England and began printing on his own account about 1590–1591; and Wynkyn de Worde, a native of Alsace, and apprentice to Caxton, with whom he probably came to England from Bruges in 1476, and to whose business he succeeded in 1491.[119] Although neither of the printers dated their work, it seems probable that the earliest edition was issued by Pynson. There is a unique copy of his edition in the British Museum; it is without title-page, pagination, or catch-words, and the colophon reads simply "Per me Ricardum Pynson." The colophon of Wynkyn's work, of which there is a complete copy in the Grenville Library (British Museum),[120] and a fragment of two leaves in the Bodleian, is slightly more instructive and runs as follows: "Here endeth a lytyll treatyse for to lern Englyshe and Frensshe. Emprynted at Westmynster by my Wynken de Worde." Now as Wynkyn moved from Westminster in 1500 to set up his shop in the centre of the trade in Fleet Street, opposite to that of his rival Pynson, his edition of the work must have appeared before that date, because it was issued from what had been Caxton's house in Westminster. On the other hand, the type used by Pynson is archaic,[121] and the work is evidently one of the earliest issued from his press. It is inferior to Wynkyn's edition from the technical point of view. A headline is all there is by way of title; while in Wynkyn's copy we find a separate title-page, containing the words, "Here begynneth a lytell treatyse for to lern Englishe and Frensshe," and a woodcut of a schoolmaster seated in a large chair, with a large birch-rod in his left hand, and, on a stool at his feet, three small boys holding open books. This particular woodcut was a favourite in school-books of the period;[122] it appears, for instance, in a little treatise entitled Pervula, giving instructions for turning English into Latin, which Wynkyn de Worde printed about 1495.[123] Moreover, each page of Wynkyn's edition has a descriptive headline, "Englysshe and Frensshe," which is not found in Pynson's. The text also is in many places more accurate than that of the Norman printer, and gives the impression of having been corrected here and there. It is therefore probable that Pynson first printed the treatise shortly after 1490,[124] and that another edition was issued by Wynkyn de Worde during the period intervening between the date of the issue of Pynson's edition and the end of the century. A remnant, consisting of one page of yet another edition, is preserved in the British Museum, and shows some variations in spelling from the two other texts.

This little book, then, seems to have enjoyed considerable popularity during its short life. On the whole it is more elementary in character than the 'doctrine' of Caxton. The first things taught are the numbers and a list of ordinary mercantile phrases. The opening passage is very much like that written by Caxton for his work:

Here is a good boke to lerne to speke Frenshe.

Vecy ung bon livre apprendre parler françoys.

In the name of the fader and the sone

En nom du pere et du filz

And of the holy goost, I wyll begynne

Et du saint esperit, je vueil commencer

To lerne to speke Frensshe,

A apprendre a parler françoys,

Soo that I maye doo my marchandise

Affin que je puisse faire ma marchandise

In Fraunce & elles where in other londes,

En France et ailieurs en aultre pays,

There as the folk speke Frensshe.

La ou les gens parlent françoys.

And fyrst I wylle lerne to reken by lettre.

Et premierement je veux aprendre a compter par lettre. …

Next come the cardinal numbers and a vocabulary of words "goode for suche as use marchaundyse":

Of gold & sylver.

D'or et d'argent.

Of cloth of golde.

De drap d'or.

Of perles & precyous stones.

De perles et Pieres precieuses.

Of velvet & damaskes.

De velours et damas etc. …

and so on for nearly a page, in which the names of various cloths, spices, and wines are provided.

Then follows another "manner of speeche" in a list of salutations arranged in dialogue form:

Other maner of speche in frensshe.

Autre magniere de langage en françoys.

Syr, God gyve you good daye.

Sire, Dieu vous doint bon iour.

Syr, God gyve you goode evyn.

Sire, Dieu vous doint bon vespere.

Syr, God gyve you goode nyght & goode reste.

Sire, Dieu vous doint bon nuyt et bon repos.

Syr, how fare ye?

Sire, comment vous portez vous?

Well at your commaundement.

Bien a vostre commandement.

How fare my lorde & my lady?

Coment se porte mon seigneur et ma dame?

Ryght well blessyd be God.

Tres bien benoit soit Dieu.

Syr, whan go ye agayne to my lorde,

Sire, quant retournez vous a mon seigneour,

I praye you that ye wyll recommaunde me unto hym,

Je vous prie que me recomandez a lui,

And also to my lady his wyfe.

Et aussi a ma dame sa femme.

Syr, God be wyth you.

Sire, Dieu soit avecques vous.

Yet another favourite subject is next introduced—a conversation on buying and selling:

Other maner of speche to bye and selle.

Aultre magniere de langage pour vendre et achatter.

Syr, God spede you.

Sire, Dieu vous garde.

Syr, have ye not good cloth to sell?

Sire, n'avez vous point de bon drapt a vendre?

Ye syr ryght good.

Ouy sire tres bon.

Now lette me see it and it please you.

Or le me laisses voir s'il vous plest.

I shall doo it with a good wyll.

Je le feray voulentiers.

Holde, here it is.

Tenez sire, le veez cy.

Now saye how moche the yerde is worthe

Or me dites combyen l'aune vault.

Ten shelynges.

Dix solz.

Forsothe ye set it to dere.

Vrayment vous le faictez trop cher.

I shall gyve you eyght shelynges.

Je vous en donneray huyt soulz.

I wyll not, it is to lytell.

Non feroy, cest trop pou.

The yerde shall coste you nyne shelynges,

L'aune vous coustra neuf soulz,

Yf that ye have it.

Si vous l'airez.

Ye shall have it for no lasse.

Vous ne l'avrez pour riens mains.

The merchant has also to be able to ask for directions on his way, and to gossip with the landlady of the wayside inn; the phrases necessary for these purposes are recorded in the next "manner of speech," where, as in the first treatise of 1396, the scene is laid in France:

For to aske the waye.

Pour demander le chemin.

Frende, God save you.

Amy, Dieu vous sauve.

Whiche is the ryght waye

Quelle est la voye droite

For to goo from hens to Parys?

Pour aller d'icy a Paris?

Syr, ye muste holde the waye on the ryght hande.

Sire, il vous fault tenir le chemin a la droite main.

Now saye me, my frende,

Or me ditez, mon amy,

Yf that any good lodginge

Y a il point de bon logis

Be betwixt this and the next vyllage?

Entre cy et ce prochayn village?

There is a ryght good one.

Il en y a ung tres bon.

Ye shall be there ryght well lodged,

Vous serez tres bien logé,

Ye & also your horse.

Vous et aussi vostre chevaul.

My frende, God yelde it you,

Mon ami, Dieu vous le rende,

And I shall doo an other tyme

Et ie feraye ung aultre foiz

As moche for you and I maye.

Autant pour vous se ie puis.

God be with you.

Dieu soit avecques vous.

The passage proceeds to describe, always in the form of a dialogue, the traveller's arrival at the inn, his entertainment there, and his departure:

Dame, shall I be here well lodged?

Dame, seroy ie icy bien logé?

Ye syr, ryght well.

Ouy sire, tres bien.

Nowe doo me have a good chambre

Or me faites avoir ungue bonne chambre

And a good fyre,

Et bon feu,

And doo that my horse

Et faites que mon chevaul

Maye be well governed,

Puisse estre bien gouverné,

And gyve hym good hay and good otes.

Et lui donnés bon foin et bon avoine.

Dame, is all redy for to dyne?

Dame, est tout prest pour aller digner?

Ye syr, whan it please you.

Oui sire, quant il vous plaise.

Syr, moche good do it you.

Sire, bon preu vous face.

I praye you make good chere

Je vous prie faictez bonne chere

And be mery, I drynke to you.

Et soyez ioieux, ie boy a vous.

Now, hostes, saye me how moche have we spende at this dyner.

Hostesse, or me dites combien nous avons despendu a ce digner.

I shall tell you with a good wyll.

Je vous le diray voulentiers.

Ye have in alle eyght shelyngs.

Vous avez en tout huyt solz.

Nowe well holde your sylver and gramercy.

Or bien tenez vostre argent et grandmercy.

Do my horse come to me.

Or me faittz venir mon cheval.

Is he sadled and redy for to ryde?

Est il sellé et appointé pour chevaucher?

Ye syr, all redy.

Ouy sire, tout prest.

Now fare well and gramercy.

Or adiu et grandmercy.

Here the 'manière de langage' ends. It is followed by a list of nouns arranged under headings. The enumeration begins with the parts of the body,[125] followed by the clothing and armour—a list containing valuable information on the fashions of the time; then come the natural phenomena, the sun, the stars, water, the winds, and so on; the products of the earth and the food they supply, and finally, the names of the days of the week. With the exception of the last page, each word is preceded by a possessive adjective or an article indicating its gender. The English rendering is sometimes placed above the French word, sometimes opposite.

After the vocabulary, which covers nearly five pages, comes the courtesy book in English and French, occupying the next seven pages. It is a reprint of the Lytylle Chyldrenes Lytil Boke,[126] which contains a set of maxims for discreet behaviour at meals, in which children are told not to snatch meat from the table before grace is said; not to throw bones on the floor; nor pick their teeth with their knife; nor do many other things, which, when we remember that such books were intended for the instruction of the gentry, throw interesting sidelights on contemporary manners. The inclusion of such precepts for children in a text-book for teaching French was not without precedent; in the last of the series of riming vocabularies, Femina (1415), there is a collection of moral maxims taken, in this instance, from the ancient writers, and printed in Latin, French, and English.

In conclusion, the author reverts to the more strictly commercial side of the treatise, with two letters, given in both French and English. One is from an apprentice who writes to his master reporting on some business he is transacting at Paris, and asking for more money. In the second a merchant communicates to his 'gossip' the news of the arrival at London and Southampton of ships laden with rich merchandise, and proposes that they should "find means and ways in this that their shops shall be well stuffed of all manner of merchandise." In both these letters the English comes first:

A prentyse wryteth to his mayster, fyrste in Englysshe and after in frensshe. [127]

Ryght worshypful syr, I recommaunde me unto you as moche as I may, and please you wete that I am in ryght goode helth thanked be God. To whome I praye that so it may be of you and of all your good frendes. As for the mater for the whiche ye sent me to Parys, I have spoken with kynges advocate the which sayd to me I must go to the kynge and enfourme his royalle majeste thereof, and have specyal commaundement. Therfore consyderynge the tyme I have taryed at Parys in the pursute of this and the grete coste and expence done bycause of this. Please you for to knowe that for to pursue that mater unto the kyng, the which is at Monthason next Tours, and for to go thyder it is nedefull to sende me some monye and with the grace of God I shalle do suche dylygence that I shall gete your hertes desyre. No more wryte I to you at this tyme but God have you in hys protectyon. Wryten hastely the XIX daye of this moneth.

Tres honnoré sire, ie me recommande a vous tant comme je puis, et plaise vous savoir que ie suis en tres bonne santé la marcy Dieu au quel ie prie que ainsi soit il de vous et de tous vos bons amys. Quant pour la matiere pour la quelle vous me envoiastes a Parys, g'ay parlé avec l'advocat du roy le quel m'a dit quil me fault aller au roy et advertir sa royalle maiesté de ce et ay un specyal commandement. Pource consyderant le temps que j'ay attendu a Paris en cest poursuite et lez granz costz et despens faitz par cause de ce. Plaise vous savoir que pour poursuir ceste matiere au roy, le qyel est a Monthason pres Tours, et pour aller la il est mestier de m'enuoyer de l'argent. Et avecques la grace de Dieu je feray telle diligence que aurez ce que vostre cueur desire. Aultre chos ne vous escripz a ceste foiz mays que Dieu vous ayt en sa protection. Escript hastivement le dixneufieme jour du moys.

And so ends this interesting little book.[128] The texts of the two complete editions are in the main identical. The arrangement of the matter on the pages is different, and the spelling of the words, both French and English, varies considerably. Slips which occur in Pynson's text, such as the rendering of 'neuf' by 'ten,' or the accidental omission of a word in the French version, are sometimes corrected in Wynkyn's version. On the other hand, similar mistakes, though much fewer in number, are found in Wynkyn's edition and not in Pynson's; while yet others are common to both the printers. Dialect forms are scattered through the two editions with equal capriciousness. Both texts contain a few anglo-normanisms. Pynson's shows numerous characteristics of the North-Eastern dialects, Picard or Lorrain, but at times there is a Picard form in Wynkyn's version, where the pure French form occurs in the other. Apart from such variations, the wording of the two editions is usually similar. In cases where it differs, the improvements are found in Wynkyn's edition, in spite of the fact that, as a general rule, the output of Pynson's press reaches a higher literary level than that of the more business-like Alsatian. This exception may, no doubt, be explained by the fact that Pynson was the first to print the Good Book to learn to speak French.[129] Yet here again mistakes are sometimes common to both texts, as, for instance, the rendering of the lines:

For the clerks that the seven arts can

Sythen that courtesy from heaven came,

by the French:

Pour les clers qui les sept arts savent

Puisque courtoisie de paradis vint,

in which the wrong interpretation of the English 'for' (conjunction) and 'sythen' (taken as meaning 'since,' not 'say') destroys the sense.

On the whole, the impression conveyed by the perusal of the two editions is that the work is a compilation of treatises already in existence in manuscript. Neither the letters nor the vocabulary present any strikingly new features. The origin of the courtesy book is known, and it is even possible that the fragment of one leaf preserved belongs, not to another edition of the Good Book to learn to speak French, but to an earlier edition of the courtesy book in French and English, printed probably by Caxton, with the intention of imparting a knowledge of polite behaviour and of the favourite language of polite society at the same time. The fact that it reproduces the original courtesy book more fully than does either of the complete texts of Wynkyn and Pynson, suggests that it belonged to some such edition, or to an edition of the Good Book earlier than either of these. As to the dialogues, they may have belonged to the group of conversational manuals, which were, no doubt, fairly numerous. Caxton, while maintaining that his 'doctrine' contains more than "many other books," adds: "That which cannot be found declared in it, shall be found elsewhere in other books." That such practical little books shared the fate of the great majority of school manuals is not surprising.

The hypothesis that the work is a compilation of older treatises would, moreover, explain the variations in the quality of the French. The dialogues and letters, it would appear, were in the first place written by Englishmen. Pynson corrected them here and there, without, however, eliminating all the anglicisms, archaisms, and provincial forms; and when they passed through the hands of Wynkyn they underwent still further emendation. The English version contains gallicisms, just as the French contains anglicisms,[130] which were, however, probably due to a desire to make the English tally with the French. This same supposition also makes it easier to understand how it came about that the treatise was printed by the two rival printers within the space of a few years, and explains how it was they repeated the same obvious mistakes.

Thus, of the matter found in the mediaeval treatises for teaching French, grammar rules alone are unrepresented in this Good Book. Its aim is entirely practical. It seeks to teach those who wish to "lerne to speke Frensshe" for practical purposes, that is, "to do their merchaundise," and there is no mention of any deeper or wider knowledge of the language. That the work was intended for the use of children as well as for merchants is shown by the introduction of the courtesy book, and, in the later edition, of the favourite frontispiece for children's school-books described above. But these do not form a vital part of the work itself, and are mere supplements, added probably with the intention of increasing the public to which the book would appeal. The children who used it, we may assume, would probably be of the class of the boy, "John, enfant beal et sage," who appears in the 'manière' of 1415, and learns French that he may the more quickly achieve his end of being apprenticed to a London merchant. To such children the apprentice's letter quoted above would be of much interest.

Grammar did not hold a very large place in the teaching of French at this time. Practice and conversation were the usual methods of acquiring a knowledge of spoken French, and no doubt such books as those of Caxton and of Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde found many eager students. The two editions of the first and the three editions of the second with which we are acquainted, all of which probably appeared in the course of the last decade of the fifteenth century, bear testimony to this. Reference has already been made to the probable existence of numerous works of a similar scope in manuscript, and later in print. Such were the "little pages, set in print, with no precepts," to which Claude Holyband, the most popular French teacher of London in the second half of the sixteenth century, refers with contempt; he accuses them of wandering from the 'true phrase' of the language, and of teaching nothing of the reading and pronunciation, "which is the chiefest point to be considered in that behalf," and hence of serving but little to the "furtherance of the knowledge of the French tongue." Yet, though such was the case in all these early works, they seem, without exception, to have enjoyed great popularity at the time they were written, when to speak French fluently was an all-important matter. The difficulty of this accomplishment was realised to the full. We find it expressed in a few disconnected sentences added in French probably at the beginning of the sixteenth century, at the end of the 'manière de langage' of 1396: "We need very long practice before we are able to speak French perfectly," says the anonymous writer, evidently an Englishman, "for the French and English do not correspond word for word, and the fine distinctions are difficult to seize." He proceeds to urge the necessity of a glib tongue in making progress in French, and quotes the case of an unfortunate man, good fellow though he might otherwise be, who lacked this faculty: "Il ne luy avient plus a parler franceis qu'à une vache de porter une selle, a cause que sa langue n'est pas bien afilée, et pour cela n'entremette il pas à parler entre les fraunceis."

In the early part of the sixteenth century, however, French began to be studied with more thoroughness in England. Communication with France and the tour in France were no longer fraught with the same dangers and difficulties, and favoured the use of a purer form of French. Fluent was no longer sufficient without correct pronunciation and grammar. The standard of French taught was also raised by the arrival of numerous Frenchmen, who made the teaching of their language the business of their lives. Further, the spread of the art of printing had rendered French literature more accessible, and supplied a rich material from which the rules of the language might be deduced. And so it became possible for John Palsgrave, the London teacher and student of Paris, to complete the first great work on the French language, in which, however, he did not forget to render due homage to his humble predecessors,[131] then fast passing into oblivion.